{"id":9847,"date":"2023-05-03T11:37:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T09:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/pushing-buttons-why-the-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger-is-a-fight-over-the-future-of-games\/"},"modified":"2023-05-03T11:37:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T09:37:18","slug":"pushing-buttons-why-the-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger-is-a-fight-over-the-future-of-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/pushing-buttons-why-the-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger-is-a-fight-over-the-future-of-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Buttons: Why the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger is a fight over the future of games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this week\u2019s newsletter: A UK regulator blocked a $70bn acquisition last week not because of any threat now, but over worries about a future monopoly<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/ng-interactive\/2021\/nov\/24\/sign-up-for-pushing-buttons-keza-macdonalds-weekly-look-at-the-world-of-gaming\">Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As is now tradition, an enormous piece of gaming news landed right after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2023\/apr\/26\/pushing-buttons-unrecord-game\">last week\u2019s Pushing Buttons <\/a>went out to readers: Microsoft\u2019s huge $70bn purchase of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush owner Activision Blizzard, a deal that has been in the works since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2022\/jan\/25\/pushing-buttons-activision-blizzard-microsoft\">January last year<\/a>, was unexpectedly blocked by a UK regulator.<\/p>\n<p>This might not seem interesting to anyone except those involved with the business of video games, or people with an inexplicable interest in the actions of regulatory authorities in Britain, but wait! It <em>is <\/em>quite interesting, because the response from these two giant companies has been entertainingly petty.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2023\/may\/03\/pushing-buttons-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger-future-of-games\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/aed253acda7e5adc0763019067a46838a74e3554\/0_176_6048_3628\/master\/6048.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=eebe1454cd52cafd52ff9ff12be25970\" title=\"Pushing Buttons: Why the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger is a fight over the future of games\" \/>In this week\u2019s newsletter: A UK regulator blocked a $70bn acquisition last week not because of any threat now, but over worries about a future monopoly<br \/>\nDon\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<br \/>\nAs is now tradition, an enormous piece of gaming news landed right after last week\u2019s Pushing Buttons went out to readers: Microsoft\u2019s huge $70bn purchase of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush owner Activision Blizzard, a deal that has been in the works since January last year, was unexpectedly blocked by a UK regulator.<br \/>\nThis might not seem interesting to anyone except those involved with the business of video games, or people with an inexplicable interest in the actions of regulatory authorities in Britain, but wait! It is quite interesting, because the response from these two giant companies has been entertainingly petty. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this week\u2019s newsletter: A UK regulator blocked a $70bn acquisition last week not because of any threat now, but over worries about a future monopoly Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here As is now tradition, an enormous piece of gaming news landed right after last week\u2019s Pushing Buttons went &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/pushing-buttons-why-the-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger-is-a-fight-over-the-future-of-games\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pushing Buttons: Why the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger is a fight over the future of games<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9847"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}